CHILDREN OF THE JIHAD

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ABSTRACT: LETTER FROM PAKISTAN about Abdul Basit Mahmud Abdul Karim, known as Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who is being held in a Manhattan prison awaiting trial as the mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing and planning to blow up several American jumbo jets. Abdul Basit is a graduate of the University of Dawa and Jihad, a military college outside of Peshawar, Pakistan. It was originally funded by the C.I.A. and the Saudi Arabian government as a training ground to combat the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. American investigators have been trying to establish a link between Abdul Basit's family and the Iranian Baloch, who are supported by Iraq. Abdul Basit went to the Arab communities in Brooklyn, and in Jersey City, and began recruiting for an American holy war. Describes the ambitious plot and amateurish execution of World Trade Center bombing. Last January in Manila, as he was building a bomb, an explosion occurred. A computer disk with many of his plans, and the name Ramzi Yousef was found. Abdul Basit was turned in by Ishtiaq Parker, and was captured in Islamabad on February 6th. He says he's an admirer of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. Both men are being tried, in separate trials, as the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing. All the groups to which Abdul Basit and his father have been linked to have received financial aid from Saudi Arabia. In March, three American staff members on their way to the U.S. consulate in Karachi were killed.